CHICAGO: As Chicago continues to be overwhelmed by gun violence and homicides, the administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot has begun to undertake a method ostensibly designed to make the US metropolis a safer place.
Nevertheless, Muslim- and Arab-owned companies say they’re paying the worth — and nobody is reaping the rewards.
In June 2021, Lightfoot unleashed a job drive that Arab- and Muslim-American enterprise homeowners say focused their shops particularly, working in a single day within the metropolis in areas the place crime was at its worst.
Between June and September of 2021, the duty drive shuttered greater than 150 small companies owned by Arab and Muslim People, in response to the American Arab Chamber of Commerce.
Aggrieved retailer homeowners lastly took motion by way of the AACC, bringing the actions of the duty drive to the general public’s consideration at a press convention on Sept. 8, 2021.
The press convention was supported by the person who’s planning to problem Lightfoot for her job subsequent yr: Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez.
Round 25 retailer homeowners attended, all however one preferring to stay nameless, fearing reprisals from the town.
“We’d obtained many complaints from companies that they have been being shut down by the town for no actual purpose. The sample didn’t emerge till August, as increasingly shops began complaining,” AACC President Hassan Nijem informed Arab Information.
“We protested to the town, however just a few aldermen listened and responded, like Alderman Raymond Lopez. However it was as if nobody needed to acknowledge our drawback.
“We have been a simple goal the mayor may use to make it appear to be she was doing one thing about gang violence when she wasn’t.”
Lopez and a number of other aldermen, together with former Illinois State Rep. Silvana Tabares and Congressional Illinois third District candidate Gilbert Villegas, tried however did not get the Chicago Metropolis Council to carry a public listening to on the closures carried out by the duty drive.
Lopez mentioned concentrating on Arab- and Muslim-owned shops was “ineffective in lowering crime” and “morally flawed.”
He added: “The place and why are we specializing in this group? Is it as a result of we expect they received’t rise up? Is it as a result of we’ve biases that we don’t wish to admit? Or are we afraid to really deal with the true magnets of violence in our neighborhoods?”
Nijem mentioned: “The mayor reopened all of the shops the day after we held a press convention to shine a lightweight on this concentrating on.” He added that TV, radio and newspaper protection made it “not possible to disregard.”
Lightfoot’s administration denied that the shops have been focused by race or faith, although the AACC says each retailer that was closed was Arab- or Muslim-owned.
She refused to fulfill with the AACC or the shop homeowners, and mentioned claims of racism have been “false” and the shops have been engaged in code violations.
Retailer homeowners mentioned they work with native police to handle crime — reporting incidents once they occur close to or round their shops — and cooperate absolutely to assist discover the perpetrators.
They added that previously, once they have been accused of code violations, they got time to right them somewhat than be closed instantly.
“Daily that I come to work, I’m at all times in worry that this job drive … will assault our gasoline station and shut us down with out discover,” Chicago gasoline station proprietor Saad Malley informed Arab Information.
INNUMBERS
161 – Arab/Muslim shops focused since June 2021.
1,500 – Jobs misplaced from closures.
$5m – Taxes misplaced from closures.
65% – Enhance in shootings in Chicago 2019-2021.
In Might 2022 the closures started once more, however this time on a smaller scale. On Might 2, surveillance cameras at a Citgo gasoline and grocery retailer on Chicago’s West Aspect, owned by Yemeni-American Ahmad Mohsin, recorded photos of a sprinting teenager wielding an unlawful AK-47 computerized rifle.
{The teenager} ran throughout the road from the shop towards Chicago Avenue at 9:30 a.m. and shot a person who was ready for public transportation.
The sufferer was on the sidewalk in entrance of Mohsin’s retailer, and was his cellphone. He died immediately, falling on the sting of Mohsin’s gasoline station property. The suspect fled and was by no means recognized or captured by police.
“We instantly known as the police, as we at all times do when there’s crime round our retailer location, and once they arrived, they requested us to shut our retailer whereas they investigated,” Mohsin informed Arab Information.
“We gladly did as a result of we at all times assist the Chicago police to assist the neighborhood the place we work.”
The subsequent day, police informed him the enterprise he owned for 20 years would stay closed indefinitely.
“We’re left with the belief that we’re being held liable for the violence that began on the town public method and over-spilled into our enterprise,” Mohsin mentioned.
He known as the AACC, which shortly organized a press convention on the gasoline station on Might 5. Nonetheless extra retailer homeowners attended, as did a number of media organizations.
Ten days later, the duty drive allowed Mohsin to reopen, however solely after he agreed to shut throughout late night hours.
He was additionally ordered to rent an extra safety staff beneficial by Lightfoot’s administration. The town prompt three corporations that ranged in value from $22,000 to $30,000 per thirty days.
The town responded to the press convention, saying Mohsin’s gasoline station had obtained notices for 18 code violations.
In actuality, these notices had been issued over a 20-year-period, with the final one given in 2021.
Lightfoot mentioned Mohsin had reported a whole bunch of crimes on the retailer location. He agreed, however defined that he was merely doing his civic responsibility as a neighborhood member by alerting the police.
Nijem mentioned: “Not one of the violent crimes that occurred close to or across the shops focused by the town over the previous yr had something to do with the shop or the shop homeowners themselves.
“The town solely claimed they have been investigating cigarette gross sales or code violations, which don’t require the shop to be closed and don’t have anything to do with violence.
“The violent crimes are crimes that happened locally the place the shop was positioned, and had nothing to do with the shop homeowners or the shop workers or the shops, aside from to have taken place close by.”
Nijem mentioned the town has by no means closed non-Arab or non-Muslim shops when crimes happen adjoining to them.
He estimated that Arabs and Muslims personal and function lower than 5 p.c of all small retail shops within the metropolis of almost 3 million residents. “As a substitute of combating crime, they’re combating the Arab and Muslim companies,” Nijem mentioned.
He added that when a retailer similar to a gasoline station is closed, the taxes collected on gross sales are misplaced to the town, the county and the state, and these losses vary from $10,000 to $20,000 per thirty days. As well as, Nijem mentioned, workers lose their jobs.
Villegas promised that he and different aldermen will struggle to cease discriminatory closures. “The issues come when you may have a (metropolis) strike drive … you don’t know the way it’s working, and actually what’s the due course of for these enterprise homeowners who’re impacted? We wish to put collectively a course of for due course of,” he mentioned.
